Archive

Quotes

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

—Al Smith, 1933

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BC

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

—Che Guevara, 1968

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

—Frederick Douglass, 1855

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

—Francis Bacon, 1625

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963